The Mystery starts here!

Yep, SusanaB. I've started working on the plan for the book's layout, which follows the usual format:

Title page (should include the title, sub-title, author)Copyright page (shows the copyright notice, publisher’s name, ISBN, name of the editor, designer, photographer, etc., as appropriate)Contents page (gives list of chapters with a corresponding page number). List of maps and illustrations (a list might be beneficial to the reader). Preface (sets out why and how a book is written).Acknowledgements (page to acknowledge the people and institutions that have assisted in a book’s publication)Introduction (introductory matter)Text (main body of the book divided into chapters)Endmatter (the endmatter or conclusion)Appendixes (appendix matter, e.g. Appendix A, B, etc.). Glossary (a list of technical terms and definitions alphabetically ordered—either by word or by letter)Bibliography (the bibliography of books and online sources used in the production of the book).

To produce the physical tome, I'm going the route of self-publishing but I haven't yet established a timeline or full production cost (I'll need to pay for an editor and a graphic designer to design the cover). Other details of the physical book should be:

This is my first time writing a book (much less a history book), and publication seemed (until quite recently) beyond my reach. Publishing was as mysterious a process as any and I lacked confidence in my ability to produce a work that's acceptable to potential readers. I guess only time will tell if I can pull it off. So, what do you think?

Last edited by J.Howey on Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:51 pm; edited 3 times in total

That's an idea! But first though, I've got to go back out to the former site of the XUAL Community and take pics of the bog for the 'Introduction' section of the book. I feel I can't explain how the site currently looks without pictures to go along with it to illustrate. Though after what happened to me the last time I went to the bog, and the craziness Dr. Broadbent succumbed to after excavating there, I'm very nervous about going. I really hope there isn't a curse on the place!

Last edited by J.Howey on Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:58 pm; edited 1 time in total

When I was digging for information prior to my interview with the Cummings family, I only found slight details on what the community were experimenting on; something about how consciousness can affect the physical material world. Their experiments weren't published in any peer review journal that I know of (or found). Though, if any of you know how to decrypt those secretexperiment.txt files that Kidrotten discovered (Mary, you virtuoso, I'm looking at you!), please have a crack at it as I'd like to read them. Many thanks, Dan.

Actually, Dan, now that you've asked, I've already cracked it! Took me ages but I figured that it was a ROT letter substitution encryption. Here is the whole file translated for those interested (because I sure amn't):

Green Thumbs: Testing how human intention can effect plant development.Principal Investigator(s): Malcolm CassinProgram Areas: Extended Human CapacitiesProject Year Started: 1970Status: CompletedRelated Topics: Intention, Intuition, Mind-Matter Interaction, Parapsychology, Nature and EcologyKeywords: mind-matter, plant developmentDescription: An experiment to test the hypothesis that plants exposed to distant intentions affects the growth rate of that plant. Over three months, participants focused their intentions towards plant samples located inside a sheilded room. Other samples located outside the sheilded room acted as distant controls. Shoots from samples in the different treatment conditions were photographed by a technician. Each image was assessed for plant growth and the resulting data was analyzed, all by individuals blind with respect to the underlying treatment conditions. Results suggested that plant growth in the intentionally treated condition were rated as more developed than proximal control samples. This outcome replicates the results of an earlier pilot test.

Gaia's Dreams: Whether dreams can be used as form of Presentiment.Principal Investigator(s): Malcolm CassinProgram Areas: Extended Human CapacitiesProject Year Started: 1974Status: ContinuousRelated Topics: Intuition, Collective Consciousness, Community and Society, States of ConsciousnessKeywords: dreaming, prediction, group-mindDescription: Gaia’s Dreams is an experiment designed to record the nightly dreams of participants over time so that the dreams can be categorized along a number of different variables to track correlations between content and quality vs. future natural disasters like earthquakes, and future unnatural disasters like terrorist attacks. A great deal of human activity is involved in anticipating the future, but most models of anticipation take for granted that events unfold in a unidirectional flow of time, from past to future. This experiment is conducted to test this assumption.

Teleportation: Moving physical objects with the mind.Principal Investigator(s): Michael FurlongCo-investigator(s): Malcolm CassinProgram Areas: Extended Human CapacitiesProject Year Started: 1978Status: CompletedRelated Topics: Transformative Practices, Mind-Matter Interaction, Subtle EnergiesKeywords: telekineses, anomalous teleportationDescription: Scientifically investigate and separately document ‘gifted children’ and adults who were able to cause the anomalous teleportation of various small, physical objects from one place to another. Objects included watches, horseflies, other insects, radio micro-transmitters, photosensitive paper and more. The participants never touched the objects beforehand. The experiments were done under both blind and double-blind conditions, and the researches involved came from various backgrounds and sectors of the community.

Shaman State: Psychophysiology of Spiritual TransmissionPrincipal Investigator(s): Malcolm CassinCo-investigator(s): Annmarie CummingsProgram Areas: Extended Human CapacitiesProject Year Started: 1981Status: TerminatedRelated Topics: States of Consciousness, Transformative Practices, Parapsychology, Subtle EnergiesKeywords: spiritual transmission, parasympathy, psycotropic drugs, possessionDescription: The Shaman experiments were conducted to objectively test the physiological correlates of spiritual transmission in both transmitters and recipients, and to explore the influence of spiritual teacher and susceptibility of the recipient under controlled laboratory conditions. Our aim was to find notable similarities in the subjectively reported instances of spiritual transmission across cultures, across spiritual traditions, and across reports that have been documented in occult literature for centuries. Participants used psychotropic drugs to gain heightened states of consciousness and its effects reported range in valence and intensity, but appear to involve arousal of the parasympathetic nervous system (hyper activation of the limbic system) such as observed during a manic or psychotic episode. These effects often occur in the context of several environmental cues, and therefore could be in large part attributed to a kind of placebo or expectancy effect, but this explanation is limited by the fact that there are many subjective reports of this phenomenon by people with apparently no prior expectancy or spiritual orientation.

Can't take all the credit, since I used the internet. There's lots of websites with tools especially designed to encrypt and decrypt messages. I simply copied the contents of the secretexperiments.txt and pasted into an online decryption program and it decrypted it for me in less than 5 seconds. Then I copied down the translation. Easy peasy.

At last we know the extent of their experiments! Fair play to you, Kidrotten! So, here's an update: I went back to the site earlier today and took some pictures. Luckily, nothing attacked me this time! (Ahem.) But the strangest thing happened while I was snapping the pics, I noticed a shape in the distance on the bog; it was some kind of wooden effigy (or idol?) roughly in the shape of a bull. 'How did I miss it the first time I was here?' I wondered to myself. I mean, it was perhaps thirty or forty feet tall, and almost as wide. Anyway, here's some pics of it:

The wooden idol seen close up

The idol seen from the back

The idol seen from further away.

Last edited by J.Howey on Fri Apr 21, 2017 6:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

Heck if I know, Susana! But it must have been there for years because the whole base of it was covered in ivy. I climbed up onto the sturdy thing and noticed there was a trapdoor that opened downward into the base from the top. Curiosity started to get the better of me, so I ventured down into it. At ground level (inside the base) I saw a hole and steps fashioned out of earth leading downward, underground. Using my phone to light my way like a torch, I went down a good thirty feet below the surface. That's when I realised the steps ended and a smooth stone passageway began.Even though I wanted to continue exploring, the evening was coming on fast and soon it would be too dark to even walk back to my car. So, I abandoned my exploration and climbed out. What do you guys think? Who wants to go exploring it with me?

Last edited by J.Howey on Fri Apr 21, 2017 6:52 pm; edited 1 time in total

That must be the entrance to the underground temple, John! The one that archaeologist, Broadbent, discovered back in 1956 before he went crazy and killed his co-workers. No way will you get me to step one toe -never mind a foot- down there!

I'm definitely not! Don't you go down there again, John! Maybe it was the swamp gas in the bog that made the archaeologist go crazy, you never know with these things?! But wasn't the underground temple (and its entrance) covered over again with earth by the Council in 1956? If so, then who dug this entrance out?

After reading 'Excavation of Beast Bog' by Dr Raymond Broadbent, PhD - a handwritten account of his discovery of an underground temple at Kilmatogh bog- I really wanted to see this for myself. Of course, I don't believe any of that satanic god, ancient cult nonsense that he goes on about (obviously the rantings of a mind progressively succumbing to madness, culminating in that atrocious double-homicide for which he was placed into Coldridge Asylum for the rest of his life). Seeing this idol (or 'effigy'), really makes me want to go to the site and have a good snoop. You can count me in, John!

You two are incorrigible!!! I'll have to see this for myself since it's a once in a lifetime experience...and I'm certainly not getting any younger. If I leave it any later, I probably wont be able to explore it...my knees just won't let me.